Inquiring minds are wondering. Tomorrow’s Land Board meeting may provide the answer, as the state’s executive branch (Gov. Schweitzer, Sec. of State Linda McCulloch, Attorney General Steve Bullock, State Auditor Monica Lindeen and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau) consider whether to lower the minimum bid for the Otter Creek coal tracts.

But not before listening (for the upteenth time) to hours of opponent testimony that ranged from environmentalists, tribal members and ranchers who will be directly affected by the rape of the land, litany of industry lies, and the permanent assault on both the environment and private property rights.

Their testimony of which, notably, was kept to a 3-minute time limit while proponents representing big coal interests (the Montana Coal Council) and the only likely leaser (Great Northern/Arch Coal) were allowed to ramble on. Watch the video in JC’s post on Otter Creek to hear what one opponent had to say about that treatment.

So it should be no surprise that the only potential bidder on the coalis whining about the minimum bid. Which, speaking of – it’s a little ridiculous to call this a bid process, IMNSHO. It sorta creates an image that there is the potential for the bid to go higher – that someone else might place a bid. Which isn’t the case here.

~~~~~~
The level to which we find our electeds here in Montana kowtowing to corporate interests all in worship to the almighty – yet elusive – “business” and “jobs” still astounds me. Proponents say that these tracts will create massive numbers of jobs, yet the total of all 5 working coal mines here in Montana doesn’t employ even 1,000 people. Factor in that the highest paid of those jobs go to out-of-state engineers and corporate big dogs, and that number becomes even lower. Mining is highly automated – and is becoming more and more automated with larger and larger machines.

The level of corporate kowtowing won’t stop with a lower of the bid price – if they do it….it’ll continue with a tromping of private property rights over those of (yep, you guess it) the developer Great Northern Arch Coal.

Certain members of the Land Board (no sense in calling anyone out in particular, and yes, Denise Juneau can be exempted here) have gone through great pains through the several hearings on Otter Creek to say that “this isn’t about the rail road” and “this isn’t about the actual mine – what we’re talking about here is just the lease” as if leasing the tracts doesn’t bring the other two.

In federal language, this is called “connected actions” and this is where federal agencies often meet their legal woes. Simply put, actions that are a result of the intended outcome must be considered.

In this previous post, titled Montana GOP leaders support federal condemnation for Otter Creek, I explained how the railroad will require condemnation (i.e., eminent domain takings) of private property. Whether the railroad will be looked at as a common carrier has yet to be seen, but even if that doesn’t occur, state law can and will be used in an attempt to condemn for that railroad.

Great Northern/Arch Coal will use MCA 70.30.102 – using a pretty wide interpretation of “public uses” (since the only one truly benefiting from the railroad will be Great Northern/Arch Coal) – to condemn private property to build this railroad. A railroad that will help Arch Coal move its Wyoming coal more cheaply to markets both east and west.

And before any wingers go screaming “tax revenue” as a public use, let me remind you of the Kelo case (which is linked to within the condemnation piece above).

I’ll also remind you that the private property of Kelo, condemned in the Kelo case, still sits unused by a now bankrupt private entity that had successfully gained the property through eminent domain.

Yessiree, this Otter Creek is one big mess. The Land Board added the .15/ton bonus payment saying it wouldn’t sell the coal cheaply. That the kids would benefit (McCulloch had some constitutional blackout with that one, since only the legislature can appropriate). Even the Good Gov has long said he would not sell Otter Creek cheaply.

We’ll see, won’t we.

~~~~~~~~
For those of you interested, you can watch the Land Board hearing live by watching it on TVMT (Channel 67 here in Missoula, other channel listings for around the state can be found here.)

Oddly – and even the Land Board’s website is pretty clear about this – the Land Board doesn’t archive its audio or video of the Land Board meetings. This is opposite the very efficient and public-information friendly legislative branch who archives not only audio and video from years past sessions, but committee meetings along with the written minutes.

SO – if you want to watch the Land Board hearing, you best set 4 or 5 hours on the DVR or VCR to tape, or catch it live. Because after that, it’s only a memory. Of course, a month later you can read the typed minutes, but those aren’t complete transcriptions.

Nothing like seeing your elected officials in action, peeps.

~~~~~~
In closing – please take the time to call or email the Land Board members tonight…or before 9 a.m. tomorrow. Tell them that leasing that coal at a lower price further perpetuates corporate welfare.

Let’s get this straight: A mysterious organization called the Committee for Truth in Politics, which is suing to stay secret, ponies up tens of thousands of dollars for scary TV ads in Montana telling us, “We won’t be fooled” by another big bank bailout?

Sadly, a lot of Montanans are being fooled. Maybe that’s because the language in the ad is very carefully crafted and poll-tested, straight from the mind of Dr. Evil Frank Luntz. If you’re unfamiliar with Luntz, he’s the rightwing wordsmith who wrote the playbook on how to kill health care reform. He just wrote the playbook on how to kill Wall Street reform. And yes, you can read his inglorious playbook online.

Wall street reform, after all, is what this shadowy organization and Luntz are trying to stop. They know that our economy collapsed because Wall Street had no one watching what it was doing. And they’re scared because the American people want to reform Wall Street so it never happens again. But Luntz knows “bailout” is a word that gets a rise out of people. So they’re trying to fool us by calling the reform effort a “bailout.” Scare and confuse people by calling it a bailout, even if it’s not bailout, because people hate bailouts!

Speaking of truth in politics, just where did the $4 trillion dollar number come from? A lot of people are trying to figure that out, including Ben Smith over at POLITICO, who boiled down the inaccuracies lies last week:

“The source of the ‘$4 trillion’ claim is language in the bill that would give the Fed authority to conduct a bailout in a future crisis, after debates over authority hampered the federal reaction in 2008. The bill has been written, however, to avoid this criticism, insisting that failed institutions be dissolved and their creditors take a bath, rather than that they be propped up and repaid.”

In other words: There is no bailout. The bill does exactly the opposite.

This ad is just another well-funded, out-of-state PR effort dumping out-of-state money into come-cheaply Montana ad space airwaves in order to throw a wrench into much-needed finance reform using the poll-tested language of fear.

These people are dangerous. They desire to rule by chaos. They decry the status quo while offering no solutions and disrupting anything designed to change the very things they hate.

Which begs the question, just who is paying for all of these TV ads? And why are they spending so much money preventing rules on Wall Street?

Who gains? Is Wall Street footing the bill? Why doesn’t the Committee for Truth in Politics want us to know the truth in politics?